Wyrdseidr

ᛦ ýr

Younger Futhark · position 16 · yew; a bow made of yew

Name
ýr
Meaning
yew; a bow made of yew
Transliteration
ʀ
Sounds
ʀ (a palatal r from Proto-Germanic z); later y
Unicode
U+16E6 runic letter long-branch-yr

Line of descent

ᛉ*algiz (or *alhiz; uncertain)Elder Futhark→ ᛦýrYounger Futhark

History

The last rune of the Younger Futhark has the most complicated history. Its ancestor is the Elder Futhark z rune, algiz, which wrote the Proto-Germanic sound z. That sound occurred only inside and at the end of words, never at the beginning. In Proto-Norse it became a distinct r-sound, transliterated ʀ (Rundata writes R). It survived in East Norse into the Viking Age in endings such as the nominative -ʀ. Hence kurmR kunukR "King Gormr" on the smaller Jelling stone (DR 41), and runaR þaR "these runes" on Rök (Ög 136), where both r-runes appear side by side.

The shape changed as well as the place. The Elder rune stood with its branches up (ᛉ). Its Younger descendant ᛦ is usually drawn with the branches pointing down, and the short-twig form ᛧ is a shortened version of it. Editors and fonts are not consistent, and ᛉ sometimes appears for this rune in modern printings. The rune also moved from the middle of the row to the very end, the only reordering in the Younger Futhark.

Because the sound never began a word, the rune could not be named by the usual acrophonic principle. It borrowed the name ýr "yew", which corresponds to the name of the unrelated Elder rune eihwaz. The Norwegian poem calls the yew "the greenest of trees in winter". The Icelandic poem has "bent bow", "brittle iron" and "the arrow's striker", with the Latin gloss arcus "bow".

When ʀ merged with ordinary r, first in West Norse and later in the east, the rune was free. By about the mid-11th century it was being used for y. Taking its value from its name, it came to write y. In the medieval alphabet ᛦ is the regular y rune, as at the end of the Bergen rune row N B17.

In the rune poems

The Old Norwegian Rune Poem, stanza 16
Ýr er vetrgrønstr viða;
vænt er, er brennr, at sviða.
Yew is the greenest of trees in winter;
when it burns, it is apt to crackle.
The Old Icelandic Rune Poem, stanza 16 · Latin gloss arcus · chieftain word ynglingr
Ýr er bendr bogi
ok brotgjarnt járn
ok fífu fárbauti.
Yew is a bent bow
and brittle iron
and the arrow's striker.
Fífa 'cotton-grass' is a poetic word for an arrow, and fárbauti 'harm-striker' is also the name of Loki's giant father. 'Brittle iron' plays on a second word ýr. In Icelandic manuscripts this rune is used for y.

Original text from the public-domain editions named on each poem's page; translations are our own.

Where it is found

  • Jelling stone 1 (DR 41): kurmR kunukR 'King Gormr'
  • Rök stone (Ög 136): runaR þaR 'these runes'
  • Bergen, Bryggen stick N B17: row ending tbmly, ᛦ for y

On inscriptions described on this site

Rök runestoneSmall Jelling stone (Gorm's stone)Large Jelling stone (Harald's stone)Ramsund carving (Sigurd carving)

Sources

  • Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata), signa DR 41, Ög 136, N B17
  • Barnes, Runes: a Handbook (2012), pp. 93–94 (via Wikipedia: Medieval runes)
  • Dickins (1915), notes to the Norwegian poem, stanza 16, and Icelandic poem, stanza 16
  • Wikipedia: Younger Futhark (checked 2026-10-26)
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